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The new Church of Christ was organized by Joseph Smith and a small group of men on April 6, 1830. Between that time and Smith's death in 1844, the administrative and ecclesiastical organization of the new church evolved from an egalitarian group of believers to an institution based on hierarchy of priesthood offices. This change over time was driven by both the growth in church population and the evolution of Smith's role as leader of the church.

Prior to the formal establishment of the church, Smith held the title of "Prophet, Seer, and Revelator," a title unanimously supported by the other founding members of the church. However, as the church was "organized" rather than legally "incorporated," its property needed to be held in trust by a trustee; Smith became the church's Trustee-in-Trust.[2]

Initially, the highest leadership position in the church was that of "elder," and church elders were sometimes called "apostles."[3] Smith's initial title in the church was "First Elder," while his friend and associate, Oliver Cowdery, was given the title "Second Elder."[4] In March 1832, Smith created a quorum of three presidents known as the First Presidency. Smith became President of the First Presidency, a title which became associated with the office of "President of the Church"; Sidney Rigdon and Jesse Gause became Smith's counselors in the First Presidency.

On December 18, 1833, Smith created the office of "Patriarch over the Church" and ordained his father, Joseph, Sr., to fill the role. The "Presiding Patriarch," as the office came to be called, often presided over church meetings and was sometimes sustained at church conferences ahead of all other church officers.[5]

On February 17, 1834, Smith created a High Council in Kirtland, Ohio. This body consisted of twelve men, headed by the First Presidency. The Kirtland High Council took on the role of chief judicial and legislative body of the local church and handled such things as excommunication trials and approval of all church spending.

Several months later on July 3, 1834, the High Council of Zion was organized in Far West, Jackson County, Missouri.[6] This High Council in Zion is also known as the Presiding High Council, for it was designated to preside over the council established in Kirtland, as well as all future High Councils at the various Stakes of Zion.[7] Cases tried in the standing High Councils of outlying stakes were regularly appealed to the High Council of Zion, it being the penultimate court standing only second to the First Presidency. The Presiding High Council also provided clearance for ordinations in the standing High Councils at the Stakes of Zion.

On February 14, 1835, nearly one year after the Kirtland High Council was organized, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, "or special witnesses of the name of Christ in all the world" was formed as a "Traveling Presiding High Council."[6][8] This council consisted of twelve men, called and ordained by the Three Witnesses of the Book of Mormon to the office of apostle, and appointed to oversee the missionary work of the church—meaning that their presiding role was outside of the Stakes of Zion. Thomas B. Marsh was set apart as their president. In practice, while both this group and the High Council in Zion were Presiding High Councils, their jurisdictions were divided with one as “standing” ministers over the Stakes of Zion, and the other “traveling” outside of the Stakes. Initially, the Quorum of the Twelve was subordinate to the High Council of Zion; for example, in 1838, when vacancies arose in the quorum, it was the Standing Presiding High Council at Far West that filled the vacancies.

When the High Council in Zion was dissolved after the church was expelled from Missouri, the headquarters of the church were moved to Nauvoo, Illinois. There, Joseph Smith formed a new Presiding High Council, led by William Marks, which supervised the High Councils of outlying stakes, under the direction of the First Presidency.

At the time of his death, Smith thus held several roles: "Prophet, Seer, Revelator, and Translator," "President of the Church," "President of the First Presidency," and "Trustee-in-Trust" of the Church. It was unclear if all of these offices should be held together by any one successor and it was equally unclear who such a successor should be.

Following the principle of lineal succession, Smith's younger brother, Samuel, was the next potential candidate in line. Sometime between June 23 and June 27, 1844, Smith reportedly stated that "if he and Hyrum were taken away, Samuel H. Smith would be his successor".[12] However, Samuel died suddenly on July 30, 1844, just a month after Joseph and Hyrum were killed.

The last of the surviving Smith brothers, William, initially claimed the right to succeed his brothers only as Presiding Patriarch. Much later, after breaking with several Latter Day Saint factions, he exercised his own claim to the presidency of the church, with little result. William alleged that his brother, Samuel, was poisoned at the behest of Brigham Young.[13] Young, however, denied any involvement[14] noting that he did not even know of Joseph Smith's death for three or four weeks afterwards, some time after Samuels's death.[14] No physical evidence exists that suggests that Samuel was the victim of foul play.[15][16]

Joseph Smith also seems to have given indications that one of his sons would succeed him. Several church leaders later stated that on August 27, 1834, and April 22, 1839, Joseph Smith indicated his eldest son, Joseph Smith III, would be his successor.[17] At the time of Smith's death, Joseph Smith III was eleven years old. Similarly, in April 1844, Joseph Smith had reportedly prophesied his unborn child would be a son who was to be named "David" and would "make his mark in the world".[18] In the 1980s, Mark Hofmann forged a copy of a patriarchal blessing given to Joseph Smith III, naming the young Joseph as Smith's successor. Although this document was a forgery, it was based on contemporary reports of such a blessing.[citation needed]

Oliver Cowdery had been the "Second Elder" of the church after Joseph Smith, and until the time of his excommunication held the keys of the dispensation with Joseph. In addition, he was with Smith at all the important events of the early church. Like Hyrum later, Joseph Smith had ordained Cowdery as the Assistant President of the Church, and had given him authority "to assist in presiding over the whole Church and to officiate in the absence of the President".[19] However, Cowdery was excommunicated on April 12, 1838.[20]

David Whitmer had been ordained President of the High Council in Zion (Jackson County, Missouri), and Joseph had blessed him on July 7, 1834, "to be a leader or a prophet to this Church, which (ordination) was on condition that he (J. Smith) did not live to God himself".[21] Upon forming the High Council in Jackson County, Smith stated "if he should be taken away that he had accomplished the great work which the Lord had laid before him, and that which he had desired of the Lord, and that he now had done his duty in organizing the High Council, through which Council the will of the Lord might be known".[22] Whitmer, however, separated from the Mormons in June 1838.[23]

Joseph Smith's death left a number of important church leaders, councils, and quorums, many of which had overlapping and/or evolving functions, without guidance. The claims of each of these quorums came into play at some point after the death of Joseph Smith.

The highest executive council of the church was the First Presidency. The death of both Joseph and Hyrum Smith left Sidney Rigdon as the surviving member of the First Presidency. As early as April 19, 1834, Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery had "laid hands upon bro. Sidney [Rigdon] and confirmed upon him the blessings of wisdom and knowledge to preside over the Church in the absence of brother Joseph".[25][26] In the spring of 1844, Joseph Smith had begun running a third-party candidacy to be elected President of the United States. Sidney Rigdon was nominated as Smith's Vice Presidentialrunning mate and had moved to Pennsylvania to establish legal residency there (the United States Constitution dictates that electors must vote for candidates for the President and Vice President from separate states). Upon receiving word of Smith's death, Rigdon claimed to receive a revelation calling him to succeed Smith as "guardian" of the church and he hurriedly returned to Nauvoo to exercise his claim.

After the First Presidency, the (Presiding) Nauvoo High Council was the church's chief non-travelling legislative and judicial council. Nauvoo Stake President William Marks was president of the High Council at the time. Smith's widow, Emma urged Marks to succeed Smith as President and Trustee-in-Trust of the church, but Marks supported the claims of Rigdon.

The Quorum of the Twelve were originally ordained to be traveling ministers, and had been delegated leadership of outlying areas of the world in which no "stakes" — local congregations — were established. By revelation, the Twelve, as a body, had authority equal to the First Presidency, the Presiding High Council, and the Quorum of Seventy.[27] However, the "twelve apostles have no right to go into Zion or any of its stakes where there is a regular high council established, to regulate any matter pertaining thereto".[28] In later years, however, Smith had given the Twelve a greater role in governing the Church, charging them with running the church's "temporal business",[29] and admitting many of them to the Council of Fifty, his closest body of political advisers, and the Anointed Quorum, his closest body of theological advisers. Brigham Young, in particular, became one of Smith's closest confidants, and occasionally took charge during the 1840s, in Smith's absence.

Another possibility for succession was the Council of Fifty, a group of trusted men, some of them non-Mormon, who campaigned for Smith's 1844 run for President of the United States, and sought the establishment of a theocratic government. Rigdon had moved to Pennsylvania in order to legally run as Vice President. In a meeting of the Council of Fifty in the spring of 1844, Smith told those with him, “I roll the burthen [burden] and responsibility of leading this Church off from my shoulders on to yours,” Joseph Smith proclaimed. “Now, round up your shoulders and stand under it like men; for the Lord is going to let me rest a while”.[30] According to Benjamin F. Johnson, a member of the Fifty but not the Twelve, recalled that Joseph rose and spoke "in the presence of the Quorum of the Twelve and others who were encircled about him."[31] According to Wilford Woodruff, Joseph "said that the Lord had now accepted his labors and sacrifices, and did not require him any longer to carry the responsibilities and burden and bearing off of this kingdom, and turning to those around him, including the 12, he said, 'And in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ I now place it upon you my brethren of the council (of 50) and I shake my skirts clear from all responsibility from this time forth.'".

At the time of Smith's death, Rigdon, Young, and many other church leaders were out of the state on evangelical missions for the church. Rigdon returned to Nauvoo first (August 3) and the next day announced at a public meeting that he had received a revelation appointing him "Guardian of the Church." President William Marks called for a conference on August 8 to decide the issue. When Brigham Young heard about Smith's death while serving a mission in Boston, his first reaction was to ask himself “whether Joseph had taken the keys of the kingdom with him from the earth,” but he immediately felt assured that the "keys of the kingdom" rested with the church.[32]

On August 6, Brigham Young and the rest of the Twelve returned to Nauvoo; the next day, they met with Sidney Rigdon, who repeated his claim to become the guardian of the Church. Brigham Young responded, "Joseph conferred upon our heads all the keys and powers belonging to the apostleship which he himself held before he was taken away".[33] So while historically the First Presidency has previously led the Church, Young proposed an ad hoc Presidency of the Church in the Quorum of Twelve.[34] Young tried diligently to persuade the people that he alone held the rights to lead the Church. He even went so far as to ride through the streets on Smith's favorite horse named Joe Duncan.[34]

At the conference on August 8, Rigdon spoke first to the assembled, asking the saints to confirm his role as "guardian." To back his claim, Rigdon cited his long relationship with Smith and the fact that he was the only surviving member of the First Presidency. Rigdon argued also that Smith had sent him to Pennsylvania to prevent the entire presidency from being killed in the ongoing conflict. The move to Pennsylvania also occurred so Rigdon could be Smith's running mate for President, as the Vice President cannot run from the same state.

After Rigdon spoke for ninety minutes, Young called for a recess of two and a half hours. When the conference resumed, Young spoke, emphasizing the idea that no man could ever replace Joseph Smith. However, he stated that the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles had all the "keys of the priesthood" that Smith had held. He answered Rigdon’s proposal to be named "guardian" by claiming that Rigdon and Smith had become estranged in recent years. Rather than a single guardian, Young proposed that the Quorum of the Twelve be named the church's leadership. Rigdon declined an offer to rebut Young, asking Phelps to speak for him. Instead Phelps spoke in favor of Young's proposal. The assembled church members then voted by common consent on whether or not to accept the Twelve as the new leaders over the church. The majority voted in favor of the Twelve. Those who opposed the vote against Young were all later excommunicated from the Nauvoo church.[34]

Many of Young's followers would later reminisce that while Young spoke he looked and sounded similar to Joseph Smith, which they attributed to the power of God.[35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42] Jorgensen establishes 101 written testimonies of people who say a transformation or spiritual manifestation occurred,[43] some of whom were not in Nauvoo at the time. The exact details vary from one account to the next. There is disagreement as to whether his clothes changed, his face changed, his voice changed, or whether he just seemed like Smith in mannerism. There is disagreement between the accounts as to whether Young started talking with Smith's voice or whether his voice changed during the speech. There is disagreement as to whether everyone saw the transformation, or whether only a few people saw it. There is also disagreement as to whether this change happened directly after Rigdon's morning speech, or whether it happened in the afternoon after the recess.[44]:21-22

The earliest reference, provided by Quinn, is the 15 November 1844 Henry and Catharine Brooke statement referring generally to Young bearing the greatest resemblance to Smith.[45] However, Jorgensen concedes, “why were none of the accounts that record the miracle written on the day of the manifestation or shortly thereafter? It is a question that unfortunately cannot be answered definitively."[46] Van Wagoner argues there are no known contemporary records of "an explicit transfiguration, a physical metamorphosis of Brigham Young into the form and voice of Joseph Smith" and that "[w]hen 8 August 1844 is stripped of emotional overlay, there is not a shred of irrefutable contemporary evidence to support the occurrence of a mystical event either in the morning or afternoon gatherings of that day."[44] Esplin, on the other hand, argues that "[t]hough there is no contemporary diary account, the number of later retellings, many in remarkable detail argues for the reality of some such experience."[47] Sidney Rigdon denied such a metamorphosis took place, and accused Young of lying about it.[44]:23

With the support of the majority of adherents, Brigham Young assumed leadership of the church. He met with the Twelve and members of the Anointed Quorum on August 9; BishopsNewel K. Whitney and George Miller "were appointed to settle the affairs of the late Trustee-in-Trust, Joseph Smith, and be prepared to enter upon the duties as Trustees of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."[48]

Meanwhile, Sidney Rigdon did not abandon his claims and began organizing supporters in Nauvoo. The Twelve Apostles discovered that Rigdon was undermining their authority; on September 3, 1844, Rigdon claimed "he had power and authority above the Twelve Apostles and did not consider himself amenable to their counsel".[49] The Twelve then disfellowshipped Rigdon, on grounds of "Making a Division in the Church [by] ordaining Prophet, Priests & Kings contrary to the Say [way?] of God".[50] He was excommunicated in absentia by the Common Council of the Church on September 8.[51] Rigdon, claiming that Young's supporters had threatened his life, fled from Nauvoo and established a separate sect of the church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which excommunicated Young and most of the Twelve.

At the General Conference of October 6–7, 1844, the Quorum of the Twelve presided as the church's highest authority for the first time; Brigham Young was sustained as "the president of the quorum of the Twelve and first presidency of the church." The saints did not sustain William Marks as president of the Nauvoo Stake, sustaining John Smith in his place.[52]

At this conference, Brigham Young also addressed the issue of revelation. More specifically, did revelations cease with Smith's death, or, if not, who would receive and publish them? He indicated his own uncertainty concerning the subject, concluding, "Every member has the right of receiving revelations for themselves, both male and female." Then he elaborated: "If you don't know whose right it is to give revelations, I will tell you. It is I".[53]

While these events were going on in Nauvoo, another successor of Smith began to exercise his claim in the church's outlying branches in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin. Although he was a recent convert (baptized in February 1844), James J. Strang posed a strong, determined, and initially quite successful challenge to the claims of Young and Rigdon. Strang was an elder in the church, charged with establishing a stake in Wisconsin, should the Latter Day Saints be forced to abandon their headquarters in Nauvoo, Illinois. He possessed a letter, known as the Letter of Appointment. This letter, purportedly written by Smith the month of his death, appointed Strang to be Smith's successor as church president. Strang also claimed that at the moment of Smith's death, he was visited by angels who ordained him as Smith's successor.

Strang's claim appealed to many Latter Day Saints who had been attracted to the early church's doctrines of continuing revelation through the mouth of a living prophet. In the August 8, 1844, Conference, Young had emphasized that no single man could replace the prophet Joseph Smith. Young subsequently used the Times and Seasons newspaper to announce to the church, "You no longer have a prophet, but you have apostles." Strang, by contrast, announced that there was, indeed, a new Mormon prophet to succeed Smith. Strang claimed to commune with angels and that he found and translated supposedly ancient records engraved upon metal plates, just as Smith had.

Strang's newspaper printed a statement allegedly signed by William Smith, Joseph Smith's mother, Lucy Mack Smith, and three of Joseph's sisters, certifying that "the Smith family do believe in the appointment of J. J. Strang." However, Lucy Mack Smith addressed the saints at the October 1844 General Conference and stated that she hoped all her children would accompany the saints to the West, and if they did she would go. Brigham Young then said: "We have extended the helping hand to Mother Smith. She has the best carriage in the city, and, while she lives, shall ride in it when and where she pleases".[54] Whether she shifted her support from Brigham Young to Strang in the year following that October Conference is a matter of debate; what is certain is that she never made it to Utah, staying instead with her daughter-in-law, Emma, in Nauvoo until her death in the summer of 1856.

Strang established his separate church organization in Voree, Wisconsin, and called upon the Latter Day Saints to gather there. He and his hierarchy were excommunicated by the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in Nauvoo and vice versa. By 1850, Strang and most of his followers had relocated to Beaver Island, Michigan, where Strang was shot by dissenters on June 16, 1856, and died shortly thereafter. Most of his followers then joined with Joseph Smith III and the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (now called the Community of Christ).

Prior to the death of Joseph Smith, the First Presidency had made nearly all the major decisions and led the Church of Christ both naturally and spiritually. On June 1, 1841, Sidney Rigdon had been ordained by Joseph Smith as a "Prophet, Seer and Revelator"[34][55]—which was one of the same ecclesiastical titles held by Smith. The Church of Jesus Christ maintains that as First Counselor to Smith, Rigdon should naturally have been the leader of the church after Smith's death.[56] With this understanding, The Church of Jesus Christ actively opposes the opinion that the Quorum of Twelve had the right to lead the church. The position of The Church of Jesus Christ is that Rigdon should have been allowed to be what he claimed to be—a "guardian" over the church until proper proceedings could decide the next church President.[34] The Church of Jesus Christ maintains the proceedings which decided Brigham Young to lead the church were a violation of proper proceedings of the church.[57]

On December 27, 1847, when Young organized a new First Presidency, the Quorum of the Twelve only had seven of its twelve members present to represent a council to decide the Presidency.[58]William Smith, John E. Page, and Lyman Wight had previously denounced the proceedings and were not present. John Taylor and Parley P. Pratt were in the Salt Lake Valley and could not have known of the proceedings.[57] This left just seven present, a majority of one meaning Young would have to vote for himself in order to gain a majority quorum vote in favor of his leadership. Young chose two of the other apostles, Heber C. Kimball and Willard Richards, as his counselors in the First Presidency. This left only four members of the Quorum of the Twelve present to vote in favor of creation of the new First Presidency: Orson Hyde, Wilford Woodruff, George A. Smith, and Orson Pratt. The Church of Jesus Christ views this action as a violation of church law compromising the authority of Sidney Rigdon without a majority quorum vote.[57] The LDS Church actively opposes this view of the proceedings.[59]

The majority of Latter Day Saints in the Nauvoo area accepted the leadership of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, either immediately or within the following two decades. In 1846, this group was forced to leave their homes and the newly built Mormon temple in Nauvoo because of mounting conflict and persecutions (the temple was destroyed two years later, in October 1848). The saints began to migrate west, though slowly at first because of the harsh winters; the wagon trains halted at Winter Quarters, Nebraska before eventually leaving to settle in the Great Basin in what is now Utah.

Sidney Rigdon's church dissolved a few years after its organization, but it was reorganized as The Church of Jesus Christ in 1862, which still exists . They view Young's assumption of power as a violation of church law compromising the authority of Sidney Rigdon without a majority quorum vote.[57]

James J. Strang's leadership was based predominantly on his own claim to be a prophet called by God. When he was mortally wounded by assassins in 1856, he refused to name a successor, leaving the matter in God's hands. When no prophet appeared, the bulk of his church dissolved, though a few loyal congregations remain today.

Many of the Latter Day Saints who remained in the Midwest, including Strang, believed that one or more of Joseph Smith's sons would eventually lead the church. The church had published a revelation in 1841 stating "I say unto my servant Joseph, In thee, and in thy seed, shall the kindred of the earth be blessed",[61] and this was widely interpreted as endorsing the concept of Lineal Succession. Accounts written after Smith's death indicate that Smith set apart his son as his successor at certain private meetings and public gatherings, including Liberty[62] and Nauvoo.[63] Within the years following Smith's murder, Brigham Young apparently made earnest entreaties to his sons, Joseph Smith III and David Hyrum Smith, to join his church's hierarchy in Utah, which may represent some recognition by Young of the patrilineal right of succession for Smith’s sons. Both Smiths, however, were profoundly opposed to a number of practices of the church in Utah, especially plural marriage, and refused to join with them.

Eventually, many Latter Day Saints in the Midwest coalesced behind the leadership of Jason W. Briggs, Zenas H. Gurley, William Marks and others. In the late 1850s, they proposed a more solid church structure, sometimes referred to in contemporary sources as the New Organization, and like other Latter Day Saint groups asked Joseph Smith III to be their president. Smith III refused to lead any church unless he felt inspired to do so. By 1860, he reported that he had received such inspiration and became Prophet/President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on April 6. Smith III stated at that conference in Amboy, Illinois:

I would say to you, brethren, as I hope you may be, and in faith I trust you are, as a people that God has promised his blessings upon, I came not here of myself, but by the influence of the Spirit. For some time past I have received manifestations pointing to the position which I am about to assume. I wish to say that I have come here not to be dictated by any men or set of men. I have come in obedience to a power not my own, and shall be dictated by the power that sent me.[64]

Joseph Smith's widow Emma, as well as Joseph III's two brothers, affiliated with this organization. A decade later the group added the word Reorganized to the official church name to distinguish it from the much larger group in Utah. For a time until the start of the twentieth century, leaders of both this group and the Utah group were Smith first cousins. The church is now referred to as the Community of Christ.

There were several other Latter Day Saint branches in Bloomington, Crow Creek, Half Moon Prairie, and Eagle Creek, Illinois, and Vermillion, Indiana, each left leaderless after the 1844 succession crisis. In 1863, these groups united under the leadership of Granville Hedrick. This group inherited the name "Church of Christ" and became known popularly as the Hedrickites. Today, this small church has ownership of a large portion of the temple site in Independence, Missouri, and its members are commonly known as the Temple Lot Mormons.

^Eugene English, "George Laub Nauvoo Diary," BYU Studies, 18 [Winter 1978]: 167 ("Now when President Young arose to address the congregation his voice was the voice of Bro[ther] Joseph and his face appeared as Joseph's face & should I have not seen his face but heard his voice I should have declared that it was Joseph")

^William Burton Diary, May 1845. LDS Church Archives ("But their [Joseph Smith and Hyrum Smith's] places were filed by others much better than I once supposed they could have been, the spirit of Joseph appeared to rest upon Brigham")

^Benjamin F. Johnson, My Life's Review [Independence, 1928], p. 103-104 ("But as soon as he spoke I jumped upon my feet, for in every possible degree it was Joseph's voice, and his person, in look, attitude, dress and appearance; [it] was Joseph himself, personified and I knew in a moment the spirit and mantle of Joseph was upon him")

^Life Story of Mosiah Hancock, p. 23, BYU Library ("Although only a boy, I saw the mantle of the Prophet Joseph rest upon Brigham Young; and he arose lion-like to the occasion and led the people forth")

^Wilford Woodruff, Deseret News, 15 March 1892 ("If I had not seen him with my own eyes, there is no one that could have convinced me that it was not Joseph Smith")

^George Q. Cannon, Juvenile Instructor, 22 [29 October 1870]: 174-175 ("When Brigham Young spoke it was with the voice of Joseph himself; and not only was it the voice of Joseph which was heard, but it seemed in the eyes of the people as though it was the every person of Joseph which stood before them").

^Nine members of the Quorum were in attendance, but only seven of the individuals were members of the Quorum on June 27, 1844, when Joseph Smith had died. Two members of the Quorum—Amasa M. Lyman and Ezra T. Benson—had been added by Young since Smith's death.

^The LDS Church maintains that Rigdon was validly excommunicated from the church by the Common Council of the Church on September 8, 1844: see History of the Church7:268-69. The LDS Church further maintains that William Smith had been disfellowshipped and replaced in the Quorum by Amasa M. Lyman and that John E. Page had been excommunicated and replaced in the Quorum by Ezra T. Benson. Because Lyman and Benson were present at the 1847 reorganization, the LDS Church claims that nine of the nine present members of the Quorum voted in favor of reorganizing Young's First Presidency, which constituted a three-quarters majority vote of the Quorum.